Anchors & Arcs: Keep Your Protagonist Grounded Through Growth

You can have the most genius plot twist in the world. The most stunning prose. Settings that are so vivid that you can see, hear, touch, smell—taste?—them. But if you don't put time and energy into developing your characters, your novel will fall flat.

Characters are the heart of any story. They are the reason why readers accidentally stay up until four in the morning, shocked that "just one more chapter" turned into "I finished the whole thing in one sitting." When done well, characters can make us laugh, sob hysterically, or want to throw the book across the room.

That's why the secret to any good novel is knowing your characters better than they know themselves. So, before you dive headfirst into worldbuilding, let's focus on the foundation: character-building.

1) Relatability (Even If They're Out Of This World)

Your characters don't have to be good people. They can be messy, jealous, and self-sabotaging in a way that, once again, makes you want to throw the book across the room. Honestly, they don't even have to be people. But they do have to be someone (or something) that your readers can connect with.

Relatability is about tapping into our all-too-familiar emotions. Think fear, love, insecurity, and ambition. Those emotions build bridges between even the wildest fantasy worlds and the very human people reading them. If your reader sees a sliver of their own experience reflected in your protagonist, you've already succeeded at capturing their attention.

As a writer, it's likely been beaten into you that perfect people are boring and real people are interesting, but the sentiment deserves repeating. So, let your characters be raw. Let them break things and desperately attempt to fix them. Let them make mistakes and grow from them. Find ways to convince your readers that your protagonist is worth following.

2) Consistency (Even When They Experience Change)

A protagonist should never remain stagnant. They need to evolve over the course of the story. However, just because they are evolving doesn't mean that everything that initially made them them should go out the window. In fact, it's the exact opposite.

Each decision your character makes should align with who they are at their core. Otherwise, when they take an action that's out of left field, your reader is going to feel like they've been lied to. They're going to question everything they know about the character. And no one wants that.

Your quiet kid can step up as a leader. Your villain can have their redemption arc. Your enemies can become lovers. As long as you show the journey. If you understand their deepest fears, their guiding principles, and their emotional triggers, you can write actions that ring true, no matter how risky or painful they seem.

Something to consider is making anchor statements. These are single sentences that ground your respective characters so that you can effectively navigate their big decisions.

3) Relationships (Even If They're Typically A Loner)

Some of my favorite characters have been side characters. I personally love a good quippy, loyal best friend. It's those side characters that provide a golden opportunity to show dimension and contrast in your protagonists. I mean, without them, your protagonist isn't doing a whole lot of anything. So, why would you drop in a side character just to make them flat?

We all behave differently around different people. Your main character may be guarded around their rival, but soft and open around the younger sibling they've been forced to raise. Maybe they are an absolute clown with their coworkers, but cringingly formal with their emotionally distant, old-money parents. The shifts in tone and behavior you get out of these interactions ultimately show readers who your character truly is.

Supporting cast does exactly that—offers support. And that support comes in a wide variety of ways, whether it's in challenging your protagonist, providing them with comfort, or reflecting aspects of their personality they aren't ready to face. These relationships should feel like a living thing, evolving just as much as the main character themself.

4) Distinctive Voice (Even When In Their Own Head)

Have you ever read a book and thought to yourself, "There's no way this character would do or believe that"? It's the kind of thing that pulls you out in a snap. Because your character's voice goes so much deeper than just what they say. It's also about how they perceive the world around them.

We're going to do a small exercise. (I'll trust that you're doing it, even though I clearly can't see you.) Take three characters you've developed or love from other media and place them in one scene. Have them each experience that scene from their point of view, and write it down in a few paragraphs. What do they see? What do they find themselves questioning? What do they say out loud, if anything? Notice how the events are identical, but the lens changes the entire vibe.

Your character's thoughts and dialogues should embody their personality at every turn. Further, your side characters shouldn't speak in the same way! Remember how I mentioned they bring dimension and contrast to your protagonists? By giving side characters their own voices, it makes your main character's stand out that much more.

When developing character profiles, include a voice guide. This can incorporate information about everything from pacing and word choice to nonverbal cues like hand gestures.

5) Plot Purpose (Even If... Well, There's No "Even If")

If your novel could unfold without your protagonist, they're not a protagonist—they're a placeholder. They need to do more than simply exist in your plot. They should be driving it.

In plot-driven stories, things happen to the character. On the flip side, in character-driven stories, things happen because of the character. That doesn't mean plot-driven stories lack depth, but character-driven stories ramp up the stakes to something bigger than life or death. Those stakes become identity, failure, and redemption, all based around their arc of defiance, acceptance, and change.

Even if (hey, there it is!) your character starts passive or reactive, they should transform into someone who shapes the outcome of the story. Their choices matter. Whatever that choice is, it should be your character pushing the narrative toward the inevitable climax and resulting resolution, not the plot dragging them along. That's what keeps readers hooked until the sun comes up.

Happy writing!

~Meg